The cost and the Fury.

Not too long ago the folks at Games Workshop released a new book and supplement for Warhammer Fantasy. Nagash, the end times Vol. 1 was released for around $80US and was accompanied by a line of very nice models, the center piece of which is Nagash himself. His model, as well as a few others in the line were priced at over $100. Earlier this year a new 40k product was introduced. Imperial Knights, with their line of plastic Titan-like models all over $100. Now, for years GW has had an annual price increase in June, and the grumbling that accompanied was noticeable. But, ever stop to think if the price is justifiable?

The answer is yes, and no. Cop out? Maybe. Lets examine the new models. A GW rep told me that the molds used to produce the sprue the plastic is molded into for models run about $450k a pop. So, if your shiney new model has 3 sprues of plastic bits to cut and build from, that is a 1.35mil in R&D. These figures are, for the most part, accurate. GW is a publicly traded company, they have a R&D budget that is accessible to the public though industry secrets are allowed. It looks as though they are spending a large sum of in-house cash on new models and molds.

That being said, there are models in the range that are ludicrously overpriced. Blood Knights come to mind.

Another note one should make... GW has, without question, the best models in min-wargaming. You can tell me I'm mistaken, but you would be wrong, and you probably know it. Yeah, warjacks are cool... Except my Avatar of Menoth is molding using metal so awful that the shield arm broke and fell off just from sitting on my shelf. Yep. Looked at it one day and the shield is just laying on the shelf. Thanks Privateer Press. Not only is your plastic nearly impossible to work with, your metal models break under their own weight.

Mantic is trying to produce high quality, low cost models for mini-wargaming. And I applaud them for this. However, if GW models are a 10 on the 'Girl at the beach' scale.., then Mantic is a 6 at best. Some much worse.

That old addage rings true folks. You get what you pay for... It's not a cheap hobby, and we all know GW makes some mistakes (6th Ed 40k!). Anyway... just my 2 cents.


Quick update!:

I have it on good authority that Bretonnians will either not be getting a new book, or will be rolled into a new Human Amries/Empire book. This has planted a seed of doubt in my mind, and before I spend any more time and effort on my Brets (Which Breaks my heart!) I am going to wait and see. For Paca I will either take Ogres or Chaos Warriors. I will decide by the end of this weekend.